Devanagari
इत्थं स्वगोकुलमनन्यगतिं निरीक्ष्य
सस्त्रीकुमारमतिदु:खितमात्महेतो: ।
आज्ञाय मर्त्यपदवीमनुवर्तमान:
स्थित्वा मुहूर्तमुदतिष्ठदुरङ्गबन्धात् ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
ittham sva-gokulam ananya-gatiṁ nirīkṣya
sa-strī-kumāram ati-duḥkhitam ātma-hetoḥ
ājṣāya martya-padavīm anuvartamānaḥ
sthitvā muhūrtam udatiṣṭhad uraṅga-bandhāt
Synonyms
ittham
—
in this fashion
;
sva
—
gokulam — His own community of Gokula
;
ananya
—
gatim — having no other goal or shelter (than Him)
;
nirīkṣya
—
observing
;
sa
—
strī — including the women
;
kumāram
—
and children
;
ati
—
duḥkhitam — extremely distressed
;
ātma
—
hetoḥ — on His account
;
ājṣāya
—
understanding
;
martya
—
padavīm — the way of mortals
;
anuvartamānaḥ
—
imitating
;
sthitvā
—
remaining
;
muhūrtam
—
for some time
;
udatiṣṭhat
—
He rose up
;
uraṅga
—
of the serpent
;
bandhāt
—
from the bonds .
Translation
The Lord remained for some time within the coils of the serpent, imitating the behavior of an ordinary mortal. But when He understood that the women, children and other residents of His village of Gokula were in acute distress because of their love for Him, their only shelter and goal in life, He immediately rose up from the bonds of the Kāliya serpent.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Lord remained for some time within the coils of the serpent, imitating the behavior of an ordinary mortal. But when He understood that the women, children and other residents of His village of Gokula were in acute distress because of their love for Him, their only shelter and goal in life, He immediately rose up from the bonds of the Kāliya serpent.
KB 10.16.23
For two hours Kṛṣṇa remained like an ordinary child gripped in the coils of Kāliya, but when He saw that all the inhabitants of Gokula—including His mother and father, the gopīs, the boys and the cows—were just on the point of death and that they had no shelter for salvation from imminent death, Kṛṣṇa immediately freed Himself.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Seeing that they had no other resort (anyanya gatim) , and understanding completely (ajnaya) the sorrow of the inhabitants of Vraja, after remaining for a muhurta (two hours) in a motionless state, Krsna said, " You have shown enough of your strength to me. Now, I will show you a little prowess of my own, though I am just a cowherd boy." Saying that, he broke free from the snake (uranga) and stood up (udatisthat).
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Seeing the people of Gokula in that condition, having no other protector, understanding completely the extreme suffering of everyone including women and children because of him, after remaining in the coils for a moment, to follow the path proper conduct, Kṛṣṇa then released himself from the snake’s coils.
He saw all the people of Gokula in a condition in that condition of bewilderment (ittham). They had no other shelter than him, having accepted him as their protector. Instead of gatim the word patim is sometimes seen, with a similar meaning. He then rose up from the coils of the snake. After some moments he got free. Why did he remain there for some time? He followed the conduct of letting people see the fault of the person whom he would punish (martya-padavīm anuvartamānaḥ). Why did he rise up? If he did not rise up, he saw that Gokula which was himself (sva) would not live. Gokula had no other protector (ananya-gatim). Or, they could not but go into the water (gatim) because of his precarious condition in the coils of the snake. He saw that they were about to enter the water. Seeing their condition he decided to rise because of their actions. The form udatiṣṭhat is poetic license. He completely understood (ājñāya) that all people including the women and children had reached the pinnacle of suffering on account of him. Sa-strī-kumāram is an indeclinable compound expressing a group. Kṛṣṇa by his nature cannot tolerate the suffering of any being. And they were suffering because of him, not themselves. And they were suffering because of his suffering. Thus he released himself from the snake’s coils. He did this quickly. All this was seen by the people of Vraja.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Seeing the people of Gokula in that condition, having no other protector, understanding completely the extreme suffering of everyone including women and children because of him, after remaining in the coils for a moment, to follow the path proper conduct, Kṛṣṇa then released himself from the snake’s coils.
He saw all the people of Gokula in that condition of bewilderment (ittham). They had no other shelter than him, having accepted him as their protector. He then rose up (udatiṣṭhad) from the coils of the snake. Instead of gatim the word patim is sometimes seen, with a similar meaning. Or being grieved by their lamentable condition (ittham), seeing himself as the lord of dedicated souls (ananya-patim), he thought he must immediately protect them.
He accepted that he was the cause of their suffering. Understanding that Gokula should be protected, he could not tolerate the suffering of others by his nature. Therefore he quickly rose, because he felt he was the cause of misery for his devotees. He was particularly disturbed by the suffering of women like Yaśodā (śtrī) and young boys like Śrīdāmā (kumaram).
Or seeing Gokula (sva-gokulam) in this state (ittham), suffering and wanting to die, understanding (ājñāta) Nanda who had nothing in life except Kṛṣṇa (ananya-patim), or understanding Nanda, the lord of the surrendered devotes (ananya-patim), along with women and boys, was suffering because of him, Kṛṣṇa released himself from the snake’s coils.
Or ananya can be an address to Parīkṣit. O surrendered soul! As with you, Kṛṣṇa necessarily gave these surrendered souls unlimited auspiciousness while protecting their lives. Patim still refers to the lord of Gokula. The rest of the meaning is the same.
Showing human pastimes (martya-padam anuvartamānaḥ), or showing to the people Kāliya’s fault by punishing him, remaining for another moment in the snake’s coils, he quickly freed himself. The real meaning is that he remained for a moment in the snake’s coils because he followed the world’s custom of being unable to free himself from a loving embrace.